Robert Phillips Boehm departed this life March 28, 2024 after suffering a hemorrhagic stroke. Bob was born in Hartford, Connecticut on Valentines Days 1944, son of Arthur Rudolph Boehm and Charlotte Phillips Hepp. He grew up in Plainville, CT, graduating from Plainville High School. As a teenager, Bob was a member of DeMolay; which teaches leadership skills he’d use throughout his life. He attended the University of Hartford and Bentley College in Boston, graduating at the top of his class.
Trained as a CPA, Bob held senior management positions with Forum Corporation in Boston (1981-1993) and Deltapoint Corporation in Bellevue WA (1993-1999). After his first retirement Bob skippered his own sailboat, a 42’ Passport he named “Pretty Penny”, for a year of cruising around the north Pacific – Canada, the U.S. West Coast, Mexico and Hawaii. Then not wanting an office job, he started his own home remodeling business, naming it “As You Like It.”.
Bob believed in community involvement. He will be remembered with admiration for his work on the boards of many non-profit organizations. In Marblehead it was the Marblehead Arts Association and the annual Marblehead Festival for the Arts, as well as the vestry of the Church of St. Andrew. It was on the board of MusicWorks Northwest in Bellevue he met his wife, Penny. Since moving to Whidbey Island in 2004 he has been a board member and officer of Meerkerk Gardens, Lagoon Point Water District, South Whidbey Yacht Club and Youth Sailing Association, and Slow Food Whidbey Island, as well as serving on the Island County Water Advisory Board.
Bob was a very talented craftsman, remodeling many of the homes he lived in, as well as contracting for friends. He found tremendous joy in both making and gifting beautiful wooden boxes and toys, especially for children of family and friends. Along with his love of sailing, Bob annually caught enough salmon, halibut and crab to enjoy throughout the year.
Bob is survived by his wife Penny Harger; his half-siblings Bruce Boehm, Beverly Boehm, Charlene Reckard, Donna Frac and Patty Curtis; his daughter Tonja Boehm Morse and her son Joseph Doyle Somerby; his son Todd Alan Boehm and his son Colby Boehm; his step daughter Alyssa Royse and her daughter Celia Huddart, and step daughter Bronwyn Holman and her children – Zoe, James and Sarah Holman. And by a circle of great friends with whom he shared years of love and laughter. He will be sorely missed.
Donations in his memory can be made to Bentley University in Waltham MA or Meerkerk Gardens in Greenbank, WA. Celebrations of Bob’s life will be held in Greenbank WA on Saturday, June 15th and Marblehead, MA on Saturday, June 22. (For directions email pennywinks2012@gmail.com.).
